This blog is dedicated to treating everyone - clients, prospects, friends, and family - as valuable partners. We should show them our gratitude through all our actions, including our marketing.

October 22, 2017

The Holiday Police

Attention: Holiday greetings can
only be sent at the end of the year.

Signed: The Holiday Police

So, just who are these Holiday Police who dictate when we can send
holiday greetings and when not to send them? Who appointed them to rule over
our holiday spirits? No one, that’s who, and just what does this have to do
with Gratitude Marketing?

So open up your holiday spirit and send greetings to anyone at any
time during the year. After all, there are holidays all during the year that
you can celebrate with your family, friends, prospects, customers, clients, and
even your staff. You can bring the joy and fun of holidays to others all year
long, and you can stand out from the crowd who just celebrate the holidays at
the end of the year.

You will stand out from the crowd and be noticed when you don’t
follow a crowd. You will create some fun for everyone and maybe have some fun
yourself at the same time. Why should you get lost in the holiday creating
crush at the end of the year? Why should your greetings get lost among the
hundreds of thousands that everyone receives? Be different and celebrate other
holidays and help your intended recipients do the same.

There are hundreds of other holidays during the year. Who wouldn’t
want to celebrate the birthdays of each of the US Presidents; what about
Thanksgiving? How about celebrating Halloween? There is always April Fools’ Day.
Of course we can be more serious and celebrate the Fourth of July, Veterans’
Day, or Flag Day. You can pick from dozens of others: Arbor Day, National
Sandwich Day, or Labor Day. You can even be imaginative and invent your own
holidays. I know a store owner in Portland who started National Underwear Day
because he operated an underwear store.

For every well-known holiday, there are many others which are forgotten,
just begging to be celebrated. You might be the only business who sends
greetings to customers on Houseplant Appreciation Day, or Leap Day, or National
Teacher’s Day, or Hammock Day, or Festivus. I’ll bet none of your competitors
will do so, and your greetings will stand out, providing some humor to the
world.

So stop doing what everyone else does. Stop following the Holiday
Police. Use your imagination and march to a different drummer. Send someone a
National Hot Dog Day greeting; I dare you. They will realize that you cared
enough to think of them without any intent to sell them anything or upgrade
their order. You just wanted to bring some cheer and light into their lives at
a time other than the end of the year. You practiced some Gratitude Marketing and sparked some fun for them and for you.

If you believe that this use of Gratitude Marketing is too bizarre for
business or “just isn’t done”, that is nothing new to me. I have heard it all. “That
won’t work. That isn’t how we do business. That’s not serious enough. We have
always done this the same way. Everyone else does it this way.” Those are the
words of the people who cannot think outside the box, who have no imagination.
Maybe we should fill Gratitude Marketing with Imagination Marketing and shock the world.

Call me at 360-314-8691, or email me at Jim@SOC4Now.com, or leave your comments
here. I would love to hear what you think of this “different” approach to Gratitude Marketing. Tell the Holiday Police that you are trying something new and
their rules don’t apply to your business anymore.